speaking, a domino arrived who seemed enamoured of the Emperor, accosted
him, mystified him, tormented him in every way, and with so much vivacity
that Auguste was beside himself; and it is impossible to give even a
faint idea of the comical sight the Emperor presented in his
embarrassment. The domino, delighted at this, redoubled her wit and
raillery until, thinking it time to cease, she disappeared in the crowd.

The Emperor was completely exasperated; he had seen enough, and we left
the ball.

The next morning when he saw the Empress, he remarked, "Well, you did not
go to the opera ball, after all!"--"Oh, yes, indeed I did."--"Nonsense!"
--"I assure you that I went. And you, my dear, what did you do all the
evening?"--"I worked."--"Why, that is very singular; for I saw at the
ball last night a domino who had exactly your foot and boots. I took him
for you, and consequently addressed him." The Emperor laughed heartily
on learning that he had been thus duped; the Empress, just as she left
for the ball, had changed her costume, not thinking the first
sufficiently elegant.

The carnival was extremely brilliant this year, and there were in Paris
all kinds of masquerades. The most amusing were those in which the
theory advocated by the famous Doctor Gall [Franz Joseph Gall, founder
of the system of phrenology. Born in Baden, 1758; died in Paris, 1825]
was illustrated. I saw a troop passing the Place du Carrousel, composed
of clowns, harlequins, fishwives, etc., all rubbing their skulls, and
making expressive grimaces; while a clown bore several skulls of
different sizes, painted red, blue, or green, with these inscriptions:
Skull of a robber, skull of an assassin, skull of a bankrupt, etc.; and a
masked figure, representing Doctor Gall, was seated on an ass, his head